Cosmetic puff

ABSTRACT

Provided is a cosmetic puff whose cosmetic application side uses a double raschel knitted fabric knitted from polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers to a 28 gauge, so that the cosmetic puff offers more flexibility and better shape restorability, transfers as much of the scraped-off cosmetic as possible to the skin and consequently maintains a clean puff surface after use, and demonstrates excellent washing resistance, as well.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a cosmetic puff.

BACKGROUND ART

Cosmetic puffs made of various materials have been known, and among cosmetic puffs, those that are soft and comfortable on the skin are favored. In the above, for a cosmetic puff to be soft and comfortable on the skin, not only the pile itself must be soft, but the ground must be soft, as well.

Examples of such cosmetic puff include those made of polyester velvet and polyester tricot piles as described in Patent Literature 1. However, PET and other polyesters lack flexibility and, even though the raised pile tips restore their original shape well from a flattened state, polyester cosmetic puffs do not feel good to use.

Also, Patent Literature 2 describes a fluffed fabric containing polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers at least in the raised nap, where such fluffed fabric is characterized in that its anti-pill property according to JIS L-1076 is Grade 3 or better, indicating that a fluffed fabric can be made with polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers.

Patent Literature 3 describes a pile fabric whose pile yarns are made of non-crimped polytetramethylene terephthalate fibers and have a pile angle of 70 to 90 degrees, wherein the double-structure fabric used as the material for such pile fabric may be a weft pile woven fabric using weft double cloth such as veludo, warp/weft pile woven fabric using warp double cloth such as velvet, double raschel knitted fabric, etc.

Furthermore, Patent Literature 4 describes a cosmetic puff made of a polytrimethylene terephthalate knitted fabric knitted by a 28-gauge tricot knitting machine to a finish of 70 courses/39 wales, where pile yarns constituted by polymethylene terephthalate fibers are cut twice and then raised and shirred, and a polyurethane sponge is inserted as the core. However, the knitted fabric obtained this way has a high ground density and is firm and therefore a cosmetic puff obtained using this knitted fabric feels hard on the skin.

In addition, a tricot knitted fabric obtained with a tricot knitting machine must go through a step called “loop raising,” where the pile is pulled up to ensure it is sufficiently long. This step causes the knitted fabric to shrink in the lateral direction, which makes it unavoidable for the ground density to increase further.

Also when the application for patent pertaining to Patent Literature 4 was filed, double raschel knitted fabrics were normally manufactured using knitting machines set to a 22 or smaller gauge (=number of needles per inch).

BACKGROUND ART LITERATURE Patent Literatures

Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 11-000224

Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-088622

Patent Literature 3: Japanese Patent No. 3953181

Patent Literature 4: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2004-033432

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Problems to Be Solved by the Invention

A cosmetic puff is used to scrape off a cosmetic, primarily powder cosmetic, from a cosmetic container and transfer the scraped-off cosmetic to the skin surface as the puff is applied to the skin. When this happens, it is necessary to transfer as much as possible to the skin surface the cosmetic that has been scraped off and attached on the puff surface. Conventional puffs are stiff and lack flexibility, and since their shape restorability after expanding/contracting is poor, these puffs may remain deformed depending on the conditions in which they are used or stored, which gives rise to a need to improve these properties.

In addition, these puffs let the cosmetic deposit on their surface and migrate into the puff over time, thereby making it difficult to remove the cosmetic sufficiently even after washing, and if the puff is used continuously in this condition, more cosmetic will deposit and migrate into the puff to make the entire puff hard and feel uncomfortable to use. Such situation must also be avoided.

Puffs are washed and reused, but conventional puffs get their surface material damaged when washed and clearly the cosmetic remains on the puff surface after washing, and consequently the cosmetic still deposits on the puff surface and migrates into the puff as described above. In addition, the raised pile on the puff surface must be flexible enough so that the pile, once flattened, can be raised again.

Means for Solving the Problems

1. A cosmetic puff whose cosmetic application side is made of a double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 gauge and containing polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers.

2. A cosmetic puff according to 1 whose cosmetic application side is made of a double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 gauge and containing polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers by 70 to 100 percent by weight and polybutylene terephthalate fibers by 0 to 30 percent by weight.

3. A cosmetic puff according to 1 or 2 wherein the knitted fabric has 35 to 70 courses per inch and 20 to 36 wales per inch.

4. A cosmetic puff according to any one of 1 to 3 wherein the knitted fabric has a pile length of 2 to 5 mm.

Effects of the Invention

According to the present invention, once the cosmetic is scraped off by the puff surface and a sufficient amount of cosmetic is taken onto the puff surface and then attached to and spread over the skin surface, almost no residues of the cosmetic that has been scraped off onto the puff surface remain thereon, meaning that more cosmetic can be applied to the skin surface.

In addition, the puff itself is flexible and has excellent shape restorability, resulting in a comfortable feel on the skin surface, and since the cosmetic can be easily removed by washing, the washed puff returns to a clean state as if it had never been used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 Puffs made of tricot knitted fabric and double raschel knitted fabric after they were used to scrape off a cosmetic.

FIG. 2 Puffs made of tricot knitted fabric and double raschel knitted fabric after the cosmetic on them was applied to the skin.

FIG. 3 A section view of a puff made of double raschel knitted fabric after it was used to scrape off a cosmetic.

FIG. 4 A section view of a puff made of double raschel knitted fabric after the cosmetic on it was applied to the skin.

FIG. 5 A section view of a puff made of tricot knitted fabric after it was used to scrape off a cosmetic.

FIG. 6 A section view of a puff made of tricot knitted fabric after the cosmetic on it was applied to the skin.

MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is explained specifically below.

The cosmetic puff proposed by the present invention has a cosmetic application part and cosmetic spreading area on one side. The shape of the puff is the same as that of any normal puff, and the cosmetics that can be used with the puff include foundations such as mineral foundations, powdery foundations, etc., as well as powder cosmetics such as control colors, face powders, finish powders, concealers, etc. (hereinafter referred to as “cosmetics”), which are the same as the cosmetics applied with normal puffs.

As explained above, the puff proposed by the present invention is in common with conventional puffs in terms of two functions: providing a cosmetic application area and spreading the cosmetic. The puff is of normal size in that, when held by a hand, it provides enough area for applying and spreading a cosmetic.

The core used by the puff proposed by the present invention is intended to add an appropriate rebound resilience, elasticity, and volume needed to use the puff as a cosmetic applicator, and although its material is not limited, preferably a sponge sheet, woven fabric, knitted fabric, non-woven fabric, or the like is used, where a sponge sheet or non-woven fabric is particularly preferred from the economic viewpoint.

Such material can be sufficiently formed using a known substance. Examples include nitrile rubber (NBR), chloroprene rubber (CR), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and various rubbers, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) and other polyesters, various nylons and other polyamides, polyurethanes, and celluloses, among others. The foregoing may be blended or copolymerized and used. In the case of a sponge sheet, the bubble structure can take various forms such as independent bubbles, continuous bubbles, or a mixture thereof. The density (or void ratio) can be set to a specified range according to the purpose, by controlling the foaming factor in the manufacturing process.

Alternately, a sponge sheet of low rebound resilience may be used. If the core is made of a non-woven fabric, its thickness, weight per area, and density are not limited in any way. It is also possible to cause such non-woven fabric or sponge sheet to support glass particles that in turn support silver, or blend such glass particles into the non-woven fabric or sponge sheet.

Next, the material of the surface used as the area for applying and spreading the cosmetic used with the puff proposed by the present invention must be able to stably hold the cosmetic on the surface, easily move the cosmetic onto the skin surface, and thinly and evenly spread the cosmetic attached to the skin surface. A sheet material that provides such material needs to be a knitted fabric made of polytrimethylene terephthalate (hereinafter also referred to as “PTT”) fibers which is also a double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 or larger gauge.

Under the present invention, polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers are used together with other fibers in such a way that the content of polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers becomes at least 70 to 100 percent by weight. Other fibers are used by 0 to 30 percent by weight in content and may be other than polytrimethylene terephthalate, such as polyester, polybutylene terephthalate, nylon, rayon, acrylic, etc., among which polybutylene terephthalate is particularly preferred.

It is also possible to cause these fibers to support glass particles that in turn support silver, or blend such glass particles into the fibers.

The technical significance of using a double raschel knitted PTT fabric is that, if a woven PTT fabric is to be used, the manufacturing process becomes complex and the denser woven texture makes it difficult to reliably apply a cosmetic to the skin, which is not desirable, and for this reason preferably a knitted fabric is used instead of a woven fabric.

Furthermore, the tricot knitting method and other knitting methods are available to knit PTT, other than the double raschel knitting method, but a puff using a tricot knitted PTT fabric cannot fully transfer the scraped-off cosmetic to the skin surface and the cosmetic remains on the puff surface after use, which makes it difficult for the user to make up the face as desired, and to solve this problem the double raschel knitting method needs to be used.

In addition, the obtained double raschel knitted fabric knitted from polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers is preferably 35 to 70 courses per inch and 24 to 36 wales per inch, or more preferably 50 to 52 courses per inch and 28 to 30 wales per inch. Also, the weight per area is preferably 100 to 700 g/m², or more preferably 250 to 650 g/m².

As is evident from above, even a double raschel knitted fabric can have a low ground density when its gauge is 22, compared to when the gauge is 28. However, 22-gauge fabrics tend to have a wider pile spacing due to their overly low density, causing the pile to flatten when the puff is used. Once the pile flattens, the cosmetic scrape-off property drops and the puff no longer feels smooth as it slides over the skin. Furthermore, the puff may take up the cosmetic differently or feel different on the skin depending on the direction in which it is used.

Of course, a thick pile yarn can be used to prevent the pile from flattening, but since the thicker yarn feels hard on the skin, the characteristic comfortable touch of the double raschel knitted fabric on the skin will be lost. For this reason, a double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 gauge, instead of a 22 gauge, needs to be adopted.

For the reverse side of the puff proposed by the present invention, or specifically the side contacted by the palm of the user's hand, the same material for the surface used as the area for applying and spreading a cosmetic, or specifically a double raschel knitted fabric knitted from polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers to a 28 or larger gauge can be adopted. Since this side is not used to take up a cosmetic, however, it can be formed by any other material.

If a sponge sheet is used for the core, for example, the same material as the core may be used or a different material may be used. A flocked sheet with hair-like fibers added to the surface of the material by electrostatic flocking or other method can be used.

Also, a napped fabric such as a woven fabric, knitted fabric, or non-woven fabric with a pile formed on the surface, or raised fabric being a raised woven fabric, knitted fabric, or non-woven fabric, can be used. Furthermore, the material may be one that can be used as a suede-like synthetic leather, nubuck-like synthetic leather or silver-clad leather or other synthetic leather.

The type, characteristics and other details of the material or flock are not limited.

The material for the reverse side, which is the opposite side of the surface used as the area for applying and spreading a cosmetic must ensure that the puff proposed by the present invention is easy to hold in a hand and also feels soft to the touch. From these viewpoints, preferably the material for the reverse side is selected from flocked sheets, flocked hot-melt sheets, raised fabrics, synthetic leathers, and resin films, among others.

The puff proposed by the present invention can have a double raschel knitted fabric knitted from polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers to a 28 or larger gauge, or double raschel knitted fabric knitted from polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers to a 28 or larger gauge and laminated on a film, etc., fixed on the whole or partial surface on the application side via a hot-melt adhesive layer, etc.

Similarly to the application surface, a double raschel knitted fabric knitted from polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers to a 28 or larger gauge can be fixed on the reverse side of the puff as it is formed, or any other material that can be used for the reverse side of the puff as described above can be fixed via a hot-melt adhesive layer, etc.

In addition, a double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 or larger gauge has a ground density lower than that of a tricot knitted fabric, and thus can be used for a powder-in puff which is a puff containing a powder cosmetic inside to be supplied to the surface of the puff through ground gaps.

In particular, such double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 or larger gauge can be used for a powder-in puff material without requiring a step to open gaps through which to pass a cosmetic.

A knitted fabric of higher ground density can also be used after opening holes in it with a needle, etc., so that the powder cosmetic inside will be supplied to the surface of the puff, but the visible ground holes look ugly, particularly when the fabric has a short pile. This shortcoming applies not only to knitted fabrics, but also to woven fabrics as a whole, which is why visibly pleasing short-piled powder-in puffs could not be provided before.

Table 1 shows the physical properties of PTT used as a material for cosmetic puffs under the present invention, as well as PET and nylon traditionally used as materials for cosmetic puffs.

TABLE 1 PTT PET Nylon Tensile strength 3.4~3.7 3.7~4.4 4.1~4.5 (cN/dtex) Elongation (%) 36~42 30~38 32~44 Initial modulus 23 97 31 (cN/dtex) Rate of recovery 88 29 62 after stretching (after 20% stretching) (%) Specific gravity 1.34 1.38 1.14 (g/cm³) Moisture content 0.4 0.4 4.5 (%) Rate of 14 7 13 contraction in boiling water (%) Melting point 230 254 253 (° C.) Weather Strength did not Strength did Strength dropped resistance drop. not drop. slightly. Yellowing Yellowing did Yellowing did Yellowing resistance not occur. not occur. occurred in some cases.

The initial modulus property in Table 1 indicates that the smaller the value, the more flexible and smoother the material. The value of initial modulus is low with PTT, meaning that its contact force on the skin is weak, but the other materials, especially PET, should feel harder on the skin because a higher initial modulus value means that the material is harder as it contacts the skin.

Similarly, the rate of recovery after stretching in Table 1 represents the property of how much the original length is recovered after the material is stretched by 20% for a specified time, and in the case of a 100 cm long PTT that has been stretched to 120 cm, this property indicates how much the 20 cm part corresponding to a 20% stretching returns to the original length within a specified time. When the materials are compared based on this property, the recovery is particularly better with PTT. This rate of recovery after stretching indicates that, even when a stretching force is applied, a puff using PTT will restore its original shape more easily than puffs using the other materials once the force is removed.

Test Example 1

The following test was conducted with respect to this rate of recovery.

A heavy stone was placed on the surface of a double raschel knitted fabric of each material shown in Table 1, thus applying weight to maintain a pressure of 0.058 kg/cm² for 24 hours, after which the heavy stone was removed.

Immediately after the heavy stone was removed, the nylon fabric showed a clear mark of the heavy stone, while the PTT and PET fabrics had a slight mark of the heavy stone on their surface. When the condition of each fabric was visually observed after 1 hour, the PTT fabric virtually restored its original condition, while a faint mark remained on the PET fabric, and an unmistakable mark remained on the nylon fabric.

Test Example 2

The PTT, PET and nylon double raschel knitted fabrics were checked for washing resistance.

To be specific, for evaluation a 28-gauge double raschel knitting machine was used to knit a fabric according to the normal knitting method using a pile yarn of PTT 84 dtex/36 f and ground yarn of PET 56 dtex/24 f based on a machine course of 52C/28W, to a pile length of 4 mm and weight per area of 485 g/m². Additionally, fabrics knitted in the same way as with the aforementioned fabric, except that nylon 78 dtex/34 f and PET 167 dtex/96 f were used as the pile yarn, respectively, were evaluated under the same conditions. The PTT fabric, PET fabric and nylon fabric obtained as above were soaked in 0.5% neutral detergent of 40° C. for 10 minutes, after which they were removed and washed under rubbing 100 times. The fabrics were thereafter dried and rubbed 200 times, and when the condition of each fabric was checked, the PTT fabric virtually returned to the condition before washing and thus exhibited good washing resistance, but the PET fabric and nylon fabric were clearly wrinkled as an evidence of poor washing resistance.

Example 1

A puff using a sponge sheet for its core and a double raschel knitted fabric for the outer side was manufactured according to a normal method. The finished dimensions of the puff were 60 mm in outer diameter, 16 mm in thickness and 8 mm in core thickness, and the ribbon part under which the fingers, etc., were to be guided had a width of 12 mm.

Additionally, another puff was manufactured in the same manner, except that a tricot knitted fabric was used for the outer side. FIGS. 1 to 6 show the conditions of the respective puffs after a cosmetic had been scraped off and applied to the skin. In FIG. 1, the puff on the left used a tricot knitted fabric, while the puff on the right used a double raschel knitted fabric (the same applies to FIG. 2 hereinafter).

Using these puffs made of two different knitted fabrics, a powder cosmetic was scraped off by applying an equivalent force. FIG. 1 shows the resulting conditions, and it can be understood that the puff using a double raschel knitted fabric could scrape off more cosmetic than the puff using a tricot knitted fabric.

FIG. 2 shows the conditions of these puffs after they were used to apply to the skin the cosmetic that had been scraped off and attached to the puff. While the puff using a tricot knitted fabric had a lot of cosmetic left on the puff as clearly noticeable to the naked eye, the puff using a double raschel knitted fabric only had a visibly unrecognizable level of cosmetic left on it.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are section views showing the puff using a double raschel knitted fabric after it had been used to scrape off and apply the cosmetic, respectively, while FIGS. 5 and 6 are section views showing the puff using a tricot knitted fabric after it had been used to scrape off and apply the cosmetic, respectively.

Comparing these views again confirm that the puff using a tricot knitted fabric had a lot of cosmetic remaining on it, especially after the cosmetic had been applied.

It should be noted that double raschel knitted fabrics with a pile length of less than 1 mm or 6 mm or more cannot be manufactured due to the machine characteristics of double raschel knitting machines. It has been confirmed that, when PTT double raschel knitted fabrics are used, puffs made of such fabrics with a pile length of 2 to 5 mm exhibit good usability. 

1. A cosmetic puff whose cosmetic application side is made of a double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 gauge and containing polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers.
 2. A cosmetic puff according to claim 1 whose cosmetic application side is made of a double raschel knitted fabric knitted to a 28 gauge and containing polytrimethylene terephthalate fibers by 70 to 100 percent by weight and polybutylene terephthalate fibers by 0 to 30 percent by weight.
 3. A cosmetic puff according to claim 1 wherein the knitted fabric has 35 to 70 courses per inch and 20 to 36 wales per inch.
 4. A cosmetic puff according to claim 1 wherein the knitted fabric has a pile length of 2 to 5 mm.
 5. A cosmetic puff according to claim 2 wherein the knitted fabric has 35 to 70 courses per inch and 20 to 36 wales per inch.
 6. A cosmetic puff according to claim 2 wherein the knitted fabric has a pile length of 2 to 5 mm.
 7. A cosmetic puff according to claim 3 wherein the knitted fabric has a pile length of 2 to 5 mm.
 8. A cosmetic puff according to claim 5 wherein the knitted fabric has a pile length of 2 to 5 mm. 